A sweet return to racing for Abby
It was a sweet return to the track today for greyhound Sweet Rose who lined up in a 4th/5th grade at Gawler over 400m this afternoon. It wasn’t just any standard race, and marked one of the greatest comeback stories you are ever likely to read, with the brindle girl returning to the track against all odds. It was back in June, that a panicked Nicole Price had to scratch Sweet Rose (Kennel name - Abby) from a Murray Bridge race, after a freak accident at home.
“She was meant to race at Murray Bridge but got out of the emptying yard and as of course it was race day, she was feeling amazing. She then saw a dog in the galloping run, and ran off to run with the dog, but because she was watching the dog and not where she was going, she ran straight into a plough. She walked back to me in shock, with major muscle damage to her chest and between her back legs.” said trainer Nicole Price.
“We rushed her straight to the vet, and they put her on the table to operate and put her under, but she crashed straight away and died. At that stage they didn’t realise she had suffered a collapsed lung as well.”
“The worst part was that her leg needed concentrating on too. They were giving oxygen and resuscitating her whilst working on the leg. There were about 8 nurses in there.”
Thanks to the brilliant work of the vets and nurses, Abby eventually came good and her road to recovery began with a week in intensive care whilst drains were inserted to help drain blood caused from her collapsed lung.
When Abby got home, all she wanted to do was go racing again.
“She didn’t like that everyone was doing stuff and she wasn’t. So, we started to walk her, which was the start of a very slow process to get her back.”
“We kept walking her and increasing it again, before she started free galloping and then finally going up our straight track.”
Once Abby had gotten past the extensive hurdles of walking and galloping again, it was time to trial her at the track.
“We started with handslips until she was ready, she had a few handslips and we made sure she was pulling up right, it didn’t matter about the time. She has gone a couple of times out of the boxes as well, she is going really well, she went 22.96 at her last trial at Gawler.”
“She’s trialling good, I nominated her for last week but panicked, so I pulled her out, I’m just anxious about it.”
Her return today will mark a special moment for a special dog that means a lot to Nicole and her family.
“She’s my son’s dog, he picked her, we all love her! She’s just so easy, she’s just a really lovely dog. No hassles and loves the children.”
In a testament to the unbelievable patience and commitment that Nicole has with her dogs, the days racing also marked the return of No Surrender, who has been off the scene for 14 months.
“He’s gonna give it a shot, his whole career he’s had problems. The last year we have been dealing with a bad toe injury. He’s had multiple surgeries on the toe yet he continually experienced problems with it. So, in the end we removed the toe being advised by vets that he probably couldn’t race again.”
No doubt it would've been a proud moment for connections to see both dogs go around well today, completing their amazing comebacks. No Surrender finishing 3rd in his race while Sweet Rose came in 6th in her race in what has been an amazing effort from Nicole to have them both back at the track.
